Reflecting on your performance as a PI

Reflection and self analysis are skills which are key to the success of your own leadership development. Below are two exercises to aid this process.

Part one: looking back

Task

Think about your career to date.

As you consider these questions, describe what happened, what you did, how you felt and what you thought.

How have you arrived in your current position?

What have been the successes of your career? Did you cause these successes or were they based on luck or external factors?

Recall the most positive elements (current or past) and describe briefly why you found them so rewarding.

Now think about the low points. Why were these difficult for you?

How did they come about?

What steps did you take to overcome them, or what prevented you from doing this?

Part two: looking forward

Activity

Think about where your career is now.

Does the career management approach you considered in the previous exercise need to change for the next stage of your career?

What hurdles are you facing?

What can you do to overcome these?

Who or what can help you?

If these hurdles cannot be overcome, how will this affect your career?

What opportunities can you see?

How are you planning to take advantage of these?

Who or what can help you?

Feedback

This activity should give you the opportunity to think about how you have managed your career to date and whether this approach has been successful. If it has, consider whether it is likely to be as successful as you face new challenges.